A SOLDIER has won a top military honour after putting his life on the line and showing exemplary bravery to defuse a series of explosive devices while serving in Afghanistan.

Bomb disposal officer Sergeant David Acarnley, 31, who was brought up near Hexham, Northumberland, spoke of his pride yesterday after being awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

The honour recognises his courage during two incidents last year in which he placed himself in “extreme danger” to deal with improvised explosive devices threatening the lives of himself and military colleagues.

Sgt Acarnley lived with his parents in Riding Mill near Hexham for 13 years, and was educated at Ovingham Middle School, Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham and Newcastle College, before joining the Army in 2004.

He was serving with the Royal Logistic Corps on his third tour in Afghanistan in June last year when he was called to the aid of a Danish armoured vehicle, after it hit an IED. A second device had been located at the back of the vehicle, trapping the crew inside, and his job was to make it safe so the soldiers could escape.

As he worked on the device, another soldier triggered a third IED, and immediately became a priority casualty.

Without hesitation, Sgt Acarnley switched tasks to clear a safe route across the deadly ground so that medics could reach the injured soldier and give him life-saving first aid. He then returned to his original task to rescue the stricken crew.

Yesterday he said: “I never really thought about the danger. I’m too laid-back really. I searched my way towards the casualty using a detector and visual signs. But there’s a different kind of pressure when you know someone is injured.

“We are very well trained. It took eight years or more before I was ready to do this job and you just don’t have time to worry about the dangers.

“I’m very proud to get this award, and especially proud of my support team, who keep me as safe as possible while I’m doing the job.

“I’m also very proud to serve my country and very mindful that we are still out there in Afghanistan. People out there are doing this sort of thing day in, day out. I feel very lucky and very honoured.”

Three months earlier, in March, Sgt Acarnley had again placed himself in extreme danger when he was tasked to make safe 150kgs of explosives discovered in a culvert under the main highway through Afghanistan.

The explosives were in a confined space and, although the device had been disarmed by a robot, they remained volatile and needed to be carefully removed. The only way he could reach them was to remove some of his protective equipment and crawl into the culvert. Using a rope, he hauled the explosives out of harm’s way.

His official citation states: “Working in the face of extreme danger from IEDs, exceptional heat and the stress of the high operational tempo, Sgt Acarnley has been tested both tactically and technically.

“He has time and again demonstrated unstinting bravery in the face of multiple, complex and imminent explosive threats.”

Sgt Acarnley moved to Riding Mill when he was three with his parents Paul, a lecturer in electrical engineering at Newcastle University, and Esther. They now live on a smallholding in Scotland, but his brother Joe still lives in Hexham. Sgt Acarnley lives in Didcot, Oxfordshire, with his wife Karen, and they are expecting their first child in August.

He joined the bomb disposal unit after a visit to the Jobcentre. “I went to sign on and the bloke there was ex-Army. I told him I used to build fireworks in my dad’s shed, so he suggested I go and be an explosive ordnance disposal technician. I feel as though I do a worthwhile job, it’s nice to be professional at something.”